To mark the 30th anniversary of City of Sydney and Guangzhou Municipality’s sister-city relationship, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art is collaborating with one of the most exciting contemporary art project spaces in China, Observation Society, to present a unique exhibition project across the two spaces.
Sea Pearl White Cloud presents newly commissioned work by Sydney-based Australian artist Lucas Ihlein and Guangdong-born Chinese artist Trevor Yeung, that reflect on the complex urban
geographies of the two cities.
Ihlein and Yeung’s conceptual approaches are informed by quasi-scientific methodologies of tracking and testing various dynamic systems that inform the urban experience in the twenty-first century.
4A’s Director, Mikala Tai, said: “4A is delighted to be collaborating with Guangzhou's Observation Society. We have long been impressed by the experimental and considered curatorial work produced and supported by the organisation. We are fortunate to be able to work with the team at Observation Society as part of the sister-city celebrations between Sydney and Guangzhou and hope that this work with Trevor Yeung and Lucas Ihlein is the first of many.”
Anthony Yung, Observation Society’s Director added “It's very exciting for us to work with 4A, an independent art space in the Asia-Pacific with a long history. Lucas and Trevor’s project is going to be an inspiring experiment. The two artists have similar interests, yet very different methods of observation and artistic strategies. We believe this project will help us to enhance mutual understanding and start establishing a new network of artistic exchange between the Pearl River Delta and Australia."
Ihlein’s work extends his ongoing interest in the water systems of Sydney and the Illawarra region, presenting new research into the natural waterways of Guangzhou.
Working across a range of media, Ihlein is concerned with the idea of ‘drifting’ through landscapes: psycho-geographies that reveal encounters between human and natural imperatives at play in the Pearl River Delta, one of the most densely urbanised regions in the world.
Also looking at manipulations of nature, Trevor Yeung’s work incorporates UV lighting, dehumidifying units and live fish to poetically propose connections between nature, the material world and their emotional import with the Chinese mythological story of The Ten Suns.
Sea Pearl White Cloud is the result of collaborative fieldwork undertaken by the artists within the unique social setting of the residential community that surrounds Observation Society’s gallery space in Guangzhou’s central district of Haizhu.
‘Sea Pearl’ (haizhu) signals a process of materiality being forged through time and ‘White Cloud’ (baiyun) is suggestive of interminable transience, but also the name of the district in which the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport is located, and where Trevor Yeung has sourced live fish and water for his works.
About the artists:
Lucas Ihlein (b. 1975, Sydney) is a Wollongong-based artist whose current work explores the relationship between socially engaged art, agriculture and ecological management. He is a founding member of artists’ collectives SquatSpace, Big Fag Press, and Teaching and Learning Cinema. Exhibitions include The Yeomans Project (with Ian Milliss), Art Gallery of New South Wales (2013-14); Green Bans Art Walk, The Cross Arts Projects & Big Fag Press, Sydney (2011); In the Balance: Art for a Changing World, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2010); There Goes the Neighbourhood, Performance Space, Sydney (2009); The Bon Scott Project, Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth (2008); and Bilateral, Australian Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide (2002). He completed a PhD at Deakin University, Melbourne, in 2008 entitled Framing Everyday Experience: Blogging as Art, which won the Alfred Deakin Medal for best Doctoral Thesis in Humanities and Social Sciences. A recipient of numerous awards and artist residencies, in 2015 Ihlein was awarded a prestigious Australia Council for the Arts Fellowship for Emerging and Experimental Arts. He is currently an ARC DECRA Research Fellow at University of Wollongong, Australia.
Trevor Yeung lives and works in Hong Kong. He graduated from the Academy of Visual Arts at Hong Kong Baptist University in 2010. Yeung’s practice uses botanic ecology, horticulture,
photography and installations as metaphors that reference the emancipation of everyday aspirations toward human relationships. Past exhibitions and projects include Adrift, OCT Contemporary Art Terminal, Shenzhen, China in 2016; Des hôtes: a foreigner, a human, an unexpected visitor, Spring Workshop, Hong Kong, and A Hundred Years of Shame – Songs of Resistance and Scenarios for Chinese Nations, Para Site, Hong Kong in 2015; Social Factory, 10th Shanghai Biennale, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, in 2014; Trevor Yeung’s Encyclopedia, Observation Society, Guangzhou, in 2013 and seven gentlemen, HARDNECK.hk, Hong Kong, and the bedroom show, the artist’s
bedroom, Hong Kong, in 2012.
About Observation Society:
Observation Society is an art collective and independent contemporary art space, formed by young artists and a curator in Guangzhou in 2009. Situated within an authentic residential community in the city’s central island Haizhu District, Observation Society provides a platform to show experimental art practices and to enhance intellectual exchanges with a focus on working with
young artists from the Pearl River Delta region and internationally.
About 4A:
From early beginnings as an independent space on Sussex St incorporated in 1996 to its present location on Hay St in Sydney’s Chinatown, 4A has come a long way to being recognised as one of
Australia’s foremost contemporary art organisations. 4A is committed to creating opportunities for artists, developing platforms to exhibit and encouraging critical discussion along the way. 4A is
known both within Australia and internationally as an authority on the contemporary art from the Asia Pacific Region.
About the exhibitions
Date: 2 June - 24 July 2016
Venue: Observation Society, Guangzhou, China
Date: 30 July - 24 September 2016
Venue: 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney, Australia
VENUE DETAILS:
Observation Society
Shop 102, No. 8, Road 1, Suihua Xincun, Haizhu District, Guangzhou, China
Open Friday-Sunday, 3pm-7pm or by appointment
4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art
181 – 187 Hay St, Sydney NSW, Australia
Open Tuesday – Saturday 11am-6pm (excluding public holidays)
Courtesy of the artists and 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, for further information please contact Joanna Bayndrian via joanna@creative-asia.net +61405933896 (AUSTRALIA) or Hanting Feng observationsociety@gmail.com (CHINA), or visit www.4a.com.au.
